Are laptop hard drives and SSDs interchangeable?

Question

I noticed that the sizes for laptop hard drives and SSDs seem to be identical in size.

My laptop currently contains a SATA hard drive. Is it possible for me to just pop in an SSD drive in place of the current hard drive and use that instead, or does my computer's hardware need any special features in order to support SSDs? To the computer is there anything special about SSDs, or are they transparently treated just like any other storage device?

Answer 1

In recent laptops both SSDs and HDDs are usually connected to the motherboard via a SATA port on the motherboard and both SSDs and HDDs follow the SATA specification. Newer models of faster SSDs may be connected to an M.2 socket which is mounted directly on the motherboard via either a SATA or a PCI-e connector depending on the model of the SSD.

SATA hard drives are not interchangeable with the parallel ATA (PATA) interface which has been superseded by the serial ATA (SATA) interface which was introduced in 2003.

^{3 SATA ports and 1 external SATA (eSATA) port}

From Difference between SATA I, SATA II and SATA III:

SATA I (revision 1.x) interface, formally known as SATA 1.5Gb/s, is the first generation SATA interface running at 1.5 Gb/s. The bandwidth throughput, which is supported by the interface, is up to 150MB/s.

SATA II (revision 2.x) interface, formally known as SATA 3Gb/s, is a second generation SATA interface running at 3.0 Gb/s. The bandwidth throughput, which is supported by the interface, is up to 300MB/s.

SATA III (revision 3.x) interface, formally known as SATA 6Gb/s, is a third generation SATA interface running at 6.0Gb/s. The bandwidth throughput, which is supported by the interface, is up to 600MB/s. This interface is backwards compatible with SATA 3 Gb/s interface.

SATA II specifications provide backward compatibility to function on SATA I ports. SATA III specifications provide backward compatibility to function on SATA I and SATA II ports. However, the maximum speed of the drive will be slower due to the lower speed limitations of the port.

SATA Express interface runs at 10.0Gb/s. The bandwidth throughput, which is supported by the interface, is up to 1000MB/s. This interface is backwards compatible with SATA interface.

mSATA SSDs follow the SATA specification, offering a maximum performance of 6.0Gb/s and look much like mini PCI Express devices, but the two connectors are not inter-compatible.

Answer 2

Regarding the similar size, you are correct. The majority of SSD's are 2.5-inch drives. Laptops similarly usually use HDD's that are 2.5-inch. If you were to change out your HDD for an SSD, you would of course have to transfer all content to the new medium, but otherwise it would work perfectly (with some performance boosts too!). I've personally done such upgrades to laptops of varying ages, and all have worked perfectly.

Answer 3

There will be some internal bookkeeping changes handled by the operating system, but otherwise they are transparently treated like any other storage device, yes. Any computer that could handle a normal SATA drive can also handle an SSD.